Stephanie Morrell: General Manager of the Bellingham Bells of The West Coast League. Talking’ Baseball.

Stephanie Morrell is our guest for this episode.

Stephanie, is a Western Washington University graduate and long-time Bellingham resident. She joined the Bellingham Bells in October 2013. The 2022 season will be her seventh as general manager, and ninth with the team. In her current role,

Stephanie chats with us about Baseball, Bellingham, and more during our conversation. Stephanie is one of the longest tenured GM’s in the West Coast League. She brings a lot of stories and information about the league in our episode.

If you are a Baseball fan, or if you love Bellingham this will an episode to listen to.  Stephanie was a lot of fun to chat with and really loves both Baseball and Bellingham.

West Coast League Baseball is just about ready to throw out the first pitch of the 2025 season. Where are you going to see Baseball in Washington this year?

This is a ongoing series of conversations with owners and general managers of the Washington State based teams in the West Coast League.  As we get ready to start the 2025 summer season of the league.  The West Coast League is a 17 team league with teams in Washington, Oregon, Alberta, and British Columbia.

Bellingham Bells Stephanie Morrell Episode Transcript

I might suggest therapy for liking spreadsheets. I just I don’t know. That’s just I might just offer that just gentle. Welcome to the Exploring Washington State podcast. Here’s your host, Scott Cowan. Alright. Welcome back to this episode of the Exploring Washington State podcast. Today, I’m with the Bellingham Bells general manager, Stephanie Morrell.

Scott Cowan [00:00:40]:

Stephanie, welcome.

Stephanie Morrell [00:00:41]:

Yeah. Thanks for having me.

Scott Cowan [00:00:43]:

Thank you for taking the time, to you’ve been instrumental actually in me being able to have these conversations with the team, so thank you publicly for your help. But before we talk before we talk about the Bellingham bells, let’s talk about you. What’s your kind of backstory? How how did you end up in the chair that you’re and don’t say why walked into the office to no. How did you end up in how did you end up as the general manager of this team?

Stephanie Morrell [00:01:08]:

Yeah. Great question. Yeah. So I grew up in Washington Scott, in Eastern Washington, and came over to Bellingham to go to college at Western back in 02/2004. And when my, days at Western were done, I studied journalism and PR and communication there. Proud Viking, loved it there. And, when I was done, I had just met, you know, my boyfriend who’s now my husband, and both of us were like, yeah. We don’t wanna go anywhere.

Stephanie Morrell [00:01:36]:

Like, even if we can’t find jobs, we’re just gonna stay here. And so, we we decided to stay in Bellingham, and I got my very first job out of college at the Bellingham Herald, which is our local newspaper here. And I was working with local businesses selling print and digital advertising. And so I was working with a lot of small businesses, helping them with their marketing and advertising plan. And really, that job is like being a marketing director for, like, 50 different businesses because a lot of them don’t have marketing directors. So you’re, like, helping them do ad copy and design and helping them talk strategy, which I loved. And I really got very connected to Bellingham, met a lot of cool people. And so at the time, about I’ve been there about two years when, the Bells I was familiar with the Bells and I’ve been to some Bells games, but the Bells got a new owner.

Stephanie Morrell [00:02:17]:

And it was Eddie Poplawski, and he was from the Bellevue area. And I had heard that he was gonna come in and rebrand and try to really, you know, send the Bells on a different trajectory. And he came into the Herald, and he wanted to partner with us. And, I was their ad rep and just kinda worked with them very closely for a couple of years and got to know their story and why they were doing what they were doing, got to help them, you know, get out with this new brand and new strategy and really trying to connect to the community. And, about three years in, in one of those meetings, they said, hey. Have you ever thought about working here? Which I hadn’t. But I’m a big sports fan, and I I really, you know, at that point was going to Bell’s games. I really appreciated their mission and their vision.

Stephanie Morrell [00:02:59]:

And, I really liked Eddie and and Nick Caples who was the GM and really the only full time employee at the time. And so they brought me over to be the second full time employee in 02/2013, and I was kinda doing a lot of marketing and sales. And, it was one of those weird things where I never knew I was very operationally gifted, but I just, like, all of a sudden was like, I love spreadsheets. I love operations. I love systems. And, really, over the next couple years, just got to know the team and, got promoted a couple times and was fortunate enough to be promoted to GM in in 2016 and work with Nick Caples for a couple of years. And then Eddie sold the team in 2017, and Nick moved on to Arizona. And we were bought by a wonderful family who lives up in Canada, and they kept me on.

Stephanie Morrell [00:03:46]:

And the rest is history, and I’ve been here eight and a half years and can’t imagine doing anything else. So that’s that’s kinda how we got here.

Scott Cowan [00:03:53]:

I might suggest therapy for liking spreadsheets. I just I don’t know. That’s just I might just offer that just gentle. No. That’s that’s that’s that’s amazing. So you said you’re you’re a sports fan. Were were you a baseball fan at that time? Not that that really necessarily matters, but what sports Yep. What sports are you into?

Stephanie Morrell [00:04:15]:

Yeah. I mean, I was a high school athlete that played volleyball. My brother was played baseball. You know, we’re a big baseball family, and my mom was running the concession stand. My dad was coaching. So I was always around it, you know. And we’re we’re big Husky football fans, so that’s kind of our number one. But it feels like in my family, which I’ve now continued on my own family, like, everything revolves around sports.

Stephanie Morrell [00:04:37]:

Like, every weekend is, like, what’s on TV, or where what sporting event are we going to, or, you know, so it’s just we’re just very, inclined that that way. And so I never played softball or anything like that, and that’s the question everyone asks, but it’s also has very little to do with my job. Because I do understand baseball from, you know, just being around it, and I love love the game, loved going to Bell’s games before before I started. So I like all kind of sports. I think, honestly, if I have to be super honest, football’s probably my favorite, but baseball is definitely number two and probably number one because I do what I do for a living, so they probably have to be tied. But, but I love them both. I love all sports, really.

Scott Cowan [00:05:15]:

Well, you know, football’s a fall sport. Baseball’s a summer and spring.

Stephanie Morrell [00:05:17]:

So you you got, you know, you can

Scott Cowan [00:05:19]:

you can flip flop half the year, and you you’re you’re good. Yep. It’s I’m I I think it’s amusing to me that you you decided to stay in Bellingham. Where you you said you grew up in Eastern Washington. Whereabouts in Eastern Washington?

Stephanie Morrell [00:05:32]:

Yeah. I grew up in Yakima.

Scott Cowan [00:05:34]:

Okay. Okay. Yakima. So I went to Central. So I grew up in the Tacoma Puyallup area, and I went to Central. And I thought, you know, I think I wanna stay here. So I kinda get I didn’t. We moved over here in 2017, so we I lived on the West Side all those years, and we, you know, we moved over here to Wenatchee now.

Scott Cowan [00:05:54]:

Eastern Washington has a certain appeal, but I also think college towns have a certain appeal, and Bellingham’s got a a cool, cool energy about it that’s, although, you know, as we talked before when we were on the phone, I’m sad about the coffee shop closing. But anyway, that doesn’t need to be here. I will ask the question just just to get out of the way. You know, I always ask, you know, where’s a great place to get a cup of coffee? I saw that you had a you know, you’ve been drinking out of a coffee cup earlier. So where’s a good place in Bellingham to get coffee?

Stephanie Morrell [00:06:22]:

Well, I’m drinking out of a Starbucks cup. I’m kind of a Starbucks girl, but that’s probably not the answer you’re looking for. So, That’s a

Scott Cowan [00:06:28]:

good answer.

Stephanie Morrell [00:06:30]:

I think, in Bellingham, I really like Tony’s Coffee in Fairhaven because it’s kinda near my daily commute and, where I’d have to drop my daughter off and everything like that. And I also really like Cafe Adagio downtown. Those are probably my my one and two.

Scott Cowan [00:06:46]:

Alright. So when you’re drinking at Starbucks, what do you what what what are you ordering?

Stephanie Morrell [00:06:51]:

I am a black Americano Cowan. And, the funny thing that people like to put fun at me around here is that the number of shots I get in my Americano increases as we get closer to the season. So I kinda start out at the base level and then just kinda caffeinate as we go, but just just shots in water.

Scott Cowan [00:07:09]:

Scott in water. But here’s the thing. Do you do you realize that technically, there’s less caffeine in an Americano than there is in drip coffee?

Stephanie Morrell [00:07:18]:

I know. I did know that. Yeah. So Like Americano’s better.

Scott Cowan [00:07:21]:

Yeah. You do? Interesting. Yeah.

Stephanie Morrell [00:07:23]:

Mhmm. Alright.

Scott Cowan [00:07:25]:

So you’re not drinking a, you know, Vente chai with six shots of vanilla and seven Splenda’s. Like, I this is completely off topic, but I used to work for Starbucks. And when at the time that I was working for them, even if you were at the corporate offices, you had to go through coffee school and you had to go work at one of the stores, which was really cool. I love that. Well, anyway, so I had to go work a shift at a store and literally somebody came in and I swear it was a prank because it was like 16 different items and I had to call it back to the barista and I’m just like, and it was like, you know, seven Splendas, but only half a packet of Scott and Cowan I wanted I swear they were pranking me. It was it was like, why are you drinking? Anyway, I just It’s not my thing. Yeah. It’s not my thing.

Scott Cowan [00:08:16]:

Alright. Well, enough about coffee. Now before we go, let’s let’s just unpack your job a little bit. So what’s the day to day duties of a general manager in your case?

Stephanie Morrell [00:08:28]:

Yeah. Well, you know, the duties are oversee day to day operations, and day to day operations kinda means a different thing every day. And, you know, you’ve been talking to different gyms in the league. I’d say all of our jobs are just a little bit different, based on the staff that we have, based on, you know, there’s some very active owners in the league. There’s some owners that take not as active day to day roles. So it just kinda depends. But, for me, you know, I oversee kind of every aspect, some deeper than others. So some of the things that I’m super involved with are, you know, sponsorship and our vendors and those relationships.

Stephanie Morrell [00:09:06]:

I’m really involved with our host family program. I’m very involved on baseball operations. So, being involved with our head coach on building the roster and making sure that roster stays maintained and relationships with college coaches and all all of those things. And, and then just the general operations piece of systems and how things work and how things need to be improved, and just basic stuff like, you know, financials and accounting and just all the stuff that kinda keeps keeps it running. So that’s kind of, my job. I’ve I’ve got a great staff. We’ve got a great summer staff. We have a great owner.

Stephanie Morrell [00:09:42]:

So everyone kinda pitches in, but, you know, I always just say my job is to kind of, from a high level, make sure that the organization in general in every single way, because there’s all these different buckets, is just trending the right direction and that we are committed and, you know, living out the mission that we have, which is community development excellence. That’s been our our thing for a long time. And so when we make decisions or we’re trending the right way, I’ve always just Scott make sure that, hey, is this something that’s gonna set us on the path of where we wanna be? And, we’ve grown a lot, and we’re getting a lot of opportunities now to do things and be things and whatever. And we just have to really make sure that we’re doing all of those things with our mission and our fans and and players in mind. So that’s probably one of the biggest jobs I have is just keeping the organization on track, but there’s lots of micro things that come out of that as well.

Scott Cowan [00:10:33]:

So I haven’t asked this question of any of the GMs up to this point. Depending on how you answer, I might add this to the future ones. Season’s over, next day, walk me through a high level of from the the day the season’s over to the first day of the next season.

Stephanie Morrell [00:10:51]:

Yeah. So generally, probably most of us would agree that the day the season’s over, there’s generally, like, two to three, four days of you’ve Scott pack stuff up. Right? You’ve got the ballpark is in just, like, pure ballpark operation mode. You gotta take down tents. You gotta put away the uniforms. You know, you gotta kinda winterize everything. You gotta put everything away. And so we generally, like, try to get that done as soon as we can so that we can kinda take a couple weeks and just take a breather.

Stephanie Morrell [00:11:18]:

Like, last year last year was a crazy year, and, I actually, like, went on vacation and turned my phone off. Well, not all the way off. I mean, it I I’m not I’m not that crazy. But, but I I just I disconnected for, you know, a week, week and a half, got Cowan. And and you really just kinda have to get back to a pace of normal life because May to August is a sprint. And we all just know that we do what we do, and in May to August, you know, baseball is the number one. And everything else you have in your life, family, your house, your this, your that, like, you just try to keep those things standing when you get through the summer. And you know that in, you know, you know that in the off season, everything’s gonna reset.

Stephanie Morrell [00:11:58]:

And so, you know, usually in August, take a little bit of time. And then, end August, early September, everything really resets. So Mhmm. You’ve got recruiting happens in mid August to mid September. Usually, all of the recruiting is done by September. So right away, you’ve gotta get out there, and you gotta start making those calls to college coaches and really get on top of that. And it starts earlier and earlier every year. So one of the first things, you know, I usually take my week Cowan then, you know, back in the office, and we’re talking about recruiting strategy calls.

Stephanie Morrell [00:12:31]:

And then, generally, that’s the time of year where if you have staffing changes or people are gonna leave or coaches decide not to come back or whatever, that’s gonna happen then too. And so so we have, usually just in September and October, and then you have your sponsorship review meetings. And and then sometimes, frankly, just things that you haven’t had time for all summer. And so it’s just like, oh, we know we need to do this or we need to do that. Taking some time to do things like fan input surveys, you know, how did it go. So the fall is just all about kind of setting ourselves up. A lot of the really good work happens in the fall. Our we usually get our schedule in the fall.

Stephanie Morrell [00:13:07]:

So we’re kinda making those base layer plans, kinda setting our travel, and doing all those things. The fall is, you know, we get back to nice forty hour weeks, and we you know, our families remember who we are again, and there’s all of those things which are really fun. And then after the first of the year, it gets to be a lot more execution wise. So it’s like, okay. We’ve sold this sponsorship or we’ve done this. We need to, you know, kind of put some pieces in place. Any new initiatives that you’re, you know, doing, like, personally this year, we’re doing some camps. We’re doing a construction project.

Stephanie Morrell [00:13:41]:

So kinda gets into, okay. You know, these are the things that we need to do and start to have conversations with vendors and other things. Because I think one of the misconceptions people ask me all the time, like, what I do outside of the bell season, like, what my job is. And that tells me that they do Scott understand the flow of this, which is that, you know, every single thing that goes into a season has to be done between September and, like, April. Because when you get to May, you don’t have time to figure out what kind of hot dog you want or, you know, whatever. You have to do all that earlier. So, so that’s a lot of stuff we do in early, you know, March, April. And then when we get to May, it’s obviously just, you know, putting all those finishing touches on and, making sure we can get the players here, that they have their passports.

Stephanie Morrell [00:14:24]:

I’d say almost every element of this is more complicated than people think. Right? So it’s like, oh, so they have 30 players. Okay. Yeah. But all those kids has to have to have a host family. And the host family, you know, if they’re allergic to dogs, they can’t live in a host family with a dog. And they have to have a passport, and they have to have insurance, and they have you know, we have to have documentation. They have to, you know, we have to figure out when they’re coming and, you know, all of these things with the uncertainty of their baseballs, you know, schedules.

Stephanie Morrell [00:14:52]:

So there’s just a lot of there’s a lot to unpack from a lot of these little things, and so that’s a lot of what we do in April and May. And then, obviously, we get to the season and start all over again.

Scott Cowan [00:15:03]:

So one of the things that I learned see, first off, you’ve explained that great. Thank you. I think I’m gonna add that question in because I think it’s interesting. I didn’t it seems glaringly obvious what you said, but I hadn’t thought about it in those terms, like like winterizing the stadium. Yeah. That’s perfectly obvious, but I hadn’t thought about those terms. But what you said I didn’t, you really shocked me with was you start, you know, building the roster, if you will, in, in, let’s just say September. Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:15:35]:

I was a little, because I see the social media that the teams are putting out where they’re announcing, you know, you’re building some hype, who’s going to be on the roster for this coming season. And so I think I just assumed that maybe January was when that was happening. Not Yep. Not right after the season. And that’s interesting. And then what could go wrong? You know, what the the the guys are typically what? 19 to 21? 18 to 22.

Stephanie Morrell [00:16:06]:

Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:16:06]:

Yeah. 18 so 18 to 22 year olds is perfectly predictable. There can’t be anything that ever comes up at the last minute, ever.

Stephanie Morrell [00:16:17]:

No. Never. Yeah. It’s you know, that’s part of the game. It’s it is developmental and a lot of these kids, I mean, people think of them as these big strong athletes, but it’s pretty common that when a guy comes out and plays for us, you know, it’s the first time he’s been on a plane by himself.

Scott Cowan [00:16:33]:

Oh, wow.

Stephanie Morrell [00:16:33]:

And, you know, because, yeah, they travel with teams and they travel with parents, but now gotcha. Yeah. Now all of a sudden, they’re trying to navigate by themselves, and they’re calling me from, you know, SeaTac saying, I can’t find the airport or shuttle bus. And, you know, it’s just it’s that kinda stuff. They’re learning life lessons, and we get really good kids. Or we’ve always made it a priority to to recruit for character and, you know, and make sure that the character’s there. But, there is a lot of life lesson learning happening, with this age group, which is actually really fun to be a part of.

Scott Cowan [00:17:04]:

And I’m chuckling, but I’m not chuckling it. It you know, I’m chuckling overall the concept. Like, yeah. Yeah. I can see this. Yeah.

Stephanie Morrell [00:17:10]:

For sure. Yeah. Yeah. For sure. So, definitely, we’re lucky. We very rarely have issues, but, you know, there’s there’s there’s life lesson learning going on, guys. We’re learning how to do laundry and how to cook eggs and other things. So it just kinda is what

Scott Cowan [00:17:23]:

it is. And then you’ve Scott you’ve gotta manage the host family side of it too. I mean, that’s that’s, you know, that I’m, you know, I’m like yeah. Alright. Wow. So building a roster, can you walk us through kind of the philosophy of building a roster? Sure.

Stephanie Morrell [00:17:41]:

I

Scott Cowan [00:17:42]:

mean, you mentioned character, and, obviously, you need, you know, first basement and a catcher. But

Stephanie Morrell [00:17:47]:

Right.

Scott Cowan [00:17:48]:

What kind of what’s some of the other components of roster building?

Stephanie Morrell [00:17:52]:

Yeah. So, you know, the way it works in our league that sometimes people don’t know is that we really work with college programs, and we we build those relationships and we work with college coaches. So it’s not really going out and scouting players. And, you know, sometimes you know who players are. You may call a program and ask for a specific player. But a lot of what it’s built on is having these relationships and being able to say, who do you have? And that coach knowing your program, knowing what you’re looking for as far as character, kind of player, kind of kid, and being able to trust that when they say, yeah, these are the four kids that you should really take, being able to trust that. So, you know, for us, and I think every every program is the same, we’ve got a handful of relationships that are really long standing that we go to first. A great example is UCLA.

Stephanie Morrell [00:18:36]:

We’ve worked with UCLA for about ten years. John Savage is one of the best in the biz, and, he’s just super honest, super reliable, and he appreciates the experience that his guys get here in Bellingham. And, you know, he sends us kids that are usually young, usually incoming freshmen, but phenomenal players, just phenomenal kids too. And, and so, you know, that’s one where John would be our first call. Hey. Who do you have? And and he would say, hey. These are the kids I wanna go to Bellingham. And we don’t even question it because that that relationship is so long standing.

Stephanie Morrell [00:19:13]:

We’ve got lots of those sort of relationships. So, you know, you kinda start there, and you build out your roster based on these programs that you’ve got these great relationship with, great tracker track records with. And that’s a two way street, by the way, because these coaches are looking for quality summer baseball experiences for their kids. Right? So they’re looking for the life experience, they’re looking for the baseball experience, they want them to get good coaching, they want them to have a good host family, they want them to be part of a well run organization. And so, when you provide a good experience, they go back and say, yeah, that was awesome. And they tell their teammates it was awesome. And and then you can kind of continue that. And so we’ve been lucky to do that over the years with some of these schools.

Stephanie Morrell [00:19:53]:

So you kinda start there, and then, you know, every year there’s new opportunities that present itself. We were really fortunate this year. We had two college coaches, come to games that we weren’t working with prior, but they came two games at the stadium last year to watch their athletes. And, one was USC, the other one was Washington State. We’re able to make connections with those coaches and and take some of their players this year for the first time. So you always kinda have some new schools that you add. And then, the way our rosters work is that we have full time roster Scott. But then, say we signed this year three players from UW.

Stephanie Morrell [00:20:30]:

UW is a quarter school. So even if they don’t make a playoff, they will not be available to us till about mid June. So if you take three kids from U Dub, you’ve Scott have kind of three ten day players who can be available to to you until the U Dub guys show up. And so, we have usually ten to fifteen, ten day contract players, and those are opportunities for maybe smaller school guys, younger players, community college players, and to give them an opportunity. And every year, some of those guys make the roster. That’s just how it goes. A lot of them are really talented for one reason or another. They haven’t gotten seen.

Stephanie Morrell [00:21:11]:

They haven’t gotten an opportunity. But we’ve had all you know, we’ve had ten day players turn into all stars. We’ve had ten day players turn into, you know, league batting champs and other things like that. So it’s, it’s really it’s really cool, and that’s part of it is to make sure that you’re covered to do those ten day players. And, so I’d say, you know, the roster, it usually from a year to year basis, you have your five core schools, you have a few new schools, and then you just have some where it’s like, you know, local players or somebody had a connection to so and so, and he’s out there and then, you know, we call and ask for that player or this and that. So it’s a lot of back and forth. Building the roster is actually we had a pitching coach who built our roster for ten years, and he took a year off. So this he’s taken this year off.

Stephanie Morrell [00:21:54]:

And so, he resigned in late August. And so Adam Giesland, who’s our head coach and I, we recruited the roster this year. And I knew it was a lot of work, but I had no idea how much work it was. It’s a lot of work, and it’s a lot of conversations, and it’s a lot of back and forth. But it’s really cool. It’s cool process to be part of. It’s cool to see the names on paper, and then the next part is you just have to see this time of year. It’s like, guys are getting hurt.

Stephanie Morrell [00:22:19]:

They might throw too many innings. They might get shut down by the pitching coach. They might transfer, you know, other things happen. So the roster changes a little, so you just wait to see what happens. And then, you know, you gotta get guys here and see what you can do with those names on paper.

Scott Cowan [00:22:32]:

Alright. So a couple of questions. Painting with a broad brush, is it harder to find pictures or position players?

Stephanie Morrell [00:22:41]:

Oh, that is a really good question. It’s a little harder to find arms, I would say. Okay. Just for for a couple reasons. It’s harder to find it’s not necessarily hard to find arms. It’s hard to find arms that can throw a decent number of innings. You know, guys are throwing, you know, not necessarily more, but there’s just more emphasis on arm care, which as there should be. And, college coaches are, you know, they’re they’re shutting guys down if they think that they’ve thrown too many innings or so there’s almost less pitchers in the pool sometimes.

Stephanie Morrell [00:23:16]:

So some years you get a lot of guides, but, you know, they can all only throw 30 innings or they can only go out for three innings at a time. And so sometimes it’s it’s hard to find that guy that can go out, give you that five, six innings once a week, you know, and then his coach says, yeah. If you Cowan throw fifty, sixty innings this summer. That’s that’s rare you know, that’s more rare these days. And it’s also just harder to, you carry more pictures, and we carry more pictures just because of the reality of arm injuries and injuries before they get to us and everything else. So you just you’re looking for more of those guys, and, they can be a little more difficult to find. But in general, I wouldn’t say that recruiting is difficult at all. I would say we you know, I get ten, fifteen, 20 emails a week from people that are looking for for spots to play and coaches and, you know, players.

Stephanie Morrell [00:24:07]:

And, a lot of those people are under the assumption that we start recruiting in January, you know. And so but we get I think there’s honestly a lot of demand, for it. So so it’s not really a scarcity issue. You know, for the most part, we’re usually able to to find you know, it gets hard in the summer. It gets hard in the summer towards the end of the year when you’re looking for guys to fill in, guys to get hurt, you know, and other things. That gets challenging. But, other than that, that’s pretty it’s not too bad.

Scott Cowan [00:24:36]:

Okay. So what are the college programs get out of this? What are their players what what’s the benefit for the college?

Stephanie Morrell [00:24:46]:

Yeah. You know, this really becomes an extension of the spring season, a summer developmental program. For most d one high end programs, it’s an expectation. So it’s not a choice. It’s an expectation. You’re gonna go out and you’re gonna play summer ball. It does a couple things. One, obviously, continued continued reps, continued development.

Stephanie Morrell [00:25:07]:

A lot of our guys are in that 18 to 21 range. So, you know, like I said, we’ll take John Savage’s incoming freshman. We’ll take Stanford’s freshman. You know? So a lot of those guys, really talented players, and they’ve got a plan for that player, but he’s not gonna crack the lineup at Stanford as a freshman. Right? So there’s a lot of guys that are waiting their turn. So they can come out and they can play every day. They can get at bats. They can get the confidence.

Stephanie Morrell [00:25:32]:

So, you know, a lot of it’s that, getting getting the reps, getting the opportunities. And then there’s some, you know, life development stuff too of just maturing and

Scott Cowan [00:25:40]:

Sure.

Stephanie Morrell [00:25:40]:

Getting out and and figuring out, you know, how to live with the host host family, how to communicate, how to play for a different coach. We swing wood bats, so it’s a little more of a minor league experience than the metal bats. And Mhmm. So, I think, you know, the the college coaches just really get that extension, that developmental opportunity. And I think that’s why relationships really come into play because I think, you know, the coaches want to be able to pick up the phone and call the head coach and say, how is he looking? How is it you know, they want to be really part of the experience. They don’t wanna ship their player off. And and I tell people all the time, I’m like, we’re borrowing. These aren’t our players.

Stephanie Morrell [00:26:19]:

Like, we are borrowing them, and we need to return them either in the shape that we found them or better. You know? And, and so our relationships with our coaches really are that way. Like, we update them. We let them know what’s going on. We send them, you know, saber-metrics reports and say, hey, here’s what we’re seeing. And just so that they’re really in the loop and that they they can use, you know, the experience to when the guy gets back on campus in the fall to be able to continue to build off that. So, so, yeah, they really get the opportunity for, you know, guys to learn and grow and have that opportunity. And when you play in the spring season, there’s only so many at bats and innings to go around, and you’re trying to make a regional, and you’re trying to win a national championship.

Stephanie Morrell [00:27:01]:

And there might be opportunities you just can’t give guys because they haven’t cracked the lineup. And so I think that’s one of the big things that summer ball can give is they can give, you know, playing every day or playing, you know, every other day. Just a lot more opportunities for some of these guys.

Scott Cowan [00:27:17]:

Do these programs ever ask you I’m just gonna assign a you know, the player’s name is Billy Ballplayer. And do they ever say, we really want Billy to learn how to do x? Like, can you help Billy learn? Or is that let’s say they want him to learn how to hit a curve ball just, you know, over some Yeah. Information. But do they ever come and say, this is you know, we’d like you to take Billy, and can you guys focus on this for the season?

Stephanie Morrell [00:27:44]:

Yeah. There’s certainly always a conversation about, you know, how how do you want us to use them? What do you want them to work on? I’d say it’s you know, in rare cases, it’s something crazy like, well, he was pitching and we wanted to play left field or, you know, something. But, most of the time, it’s things like, you know, yeah, we he he’s been in the middle of our rotation. We’d like to use him, you know, he’s been a back end bullpen guy. We’d like to use him as a starter next year, so we’d like you to use him as a starter next year. Or Okay. You know, he can play the corners pretty well. We usually have him at first, but we’d like him to see a little time in third.

Stephanie Morrell [00:28:25]:

So it’s just some stuff like that. Sure. And sometimes they’ll just say, you know, it doesn’t always have to be in a game because we do early work every day. And so sometimes, you know, a program might say, hey. Do you mind Cowan early work, you know, getting him some reps at shortstop and see how that goes. And, you know, because programs are always kinda trying to figure out too. A lot of these guys are versatile and have played a lot of, positions. So, yeah, it’s usually things like that, but there’s always conversations about what the plan for the player is, and we always take that input really seriously.

Stephanie Morrell [00:28:56]:

And, and and every guy usually comes with, you know, a plan for the weight room, like, what what their strength coach wants them to be doing, and then a plan on the baseball side about of what they want them to be working at. And maybe that’s, you know, be a variety of of different things, but everyone’s always on the the same page about what those are.

Scott Cowan [00:29:14]:

So you’re not gonna take a a kid that’s been, you know, top of rotation starter and turn them into a shortstop and say, hey. Hey. We got your shortstop.

Stephanie Morrell [00:29:21]:

Yeah. No. We wouldn’t, we wouldn’t do we wouldn’t do that.

Scott Cowan [00:29:25]:

I know you were looking for him to be your number two pitcher next year, but he really should put his shirt stuff for it. Sorry. That’s what we needed and we’re going to use it there. So I really, I do like the fact that it’s, you know, one of the things in these conversations is the word that just keeps coming back to me all the time is I just keep thinking of collaboration. It’s it’s a very collaborative relationship between the various programs that are supplying the the players. It’s very collaborative between the players. We need host families, the the team, the community, the league itself. You know, the the the league itself is just seems competitive on the field, but collaborative outside the field.

Stephanie Morrell [00:30:10]:

Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:30:10]:

And that’s that’s really exciting. So let’s that’s enough nuts and bolts baseball. We’ll we’ll Mhmm. Let’s let’s talk, let’s talk the team, the Bellingham Bells. What’s the backstory of the Bellingham Bells? I mean, you kinda gave it to us Yeah. But with ownership. But, like, how long the Bells been in existence? Kinda what’s the high points of their history?

Stephanie Morrell [00:30:33]:

Yeah. So I actually have a book over here on my desk that’s, called Bays to Bells, and somebody, wrote the book a long time ago. And basically, just about how the the bells have been in existence here for eighty years. It’s got a really cool story. The book’s actually really cool. It has an index, so people come in, sometimes they’re like, my grandpa was a Bell. We Cowan look up grandpa and figure out what year he was and whatever. So it’s really cool.

Stephanie Morrell [00:30:57]:

So the Bells in like the fifties and sixties was a community team, kinda like a semi pro team. And, there was, you know, when the men went off to war, the women played, and it’s just really cool. And, in the seventies, minor league baseball came in. The Belling and Mariners were in Joe Martin Field. For several years, Ken Griffey Junior got his start there. So that’s a lot of people think Ken Griffey Junior was a Bell, which he wasn’t, but he did play at Joe Martin Field where we play, which is really cool. After the Mariners, it was the Giants and Dodgers. So there was about 20 of affiliated baseball at the field.

Stephanie Morrell [00:31:34]:

And during that time, the Bells still continued to be a community team, played kind of in a variety of ways. There’s a really cool old iconic field, Battersby Field, and, they played there for a while and, you know, etcetera etcetera. So, basically, Bellingham is just a great baseball community, very storied baseball community, and it’s really rare that I talk to somebody that they don’t tell me a story about going to Bellingham Mariners games or doing this or Dodgers or Battersby Park or, you know, whatever. And so, the Bells in 1999, I believe affiliated ball had gone out in ’96. So there was a three year gap where there really wasn’t anything. And so, there was a businessman from New York. I don’t know a lot about him. I think his name was George, and he, for some reason, decided to start the bells in ’99 and then only owned it for, like, a year or two and sold it to a local family who owned it for a while.

Stephanie Morrell [00:32:30]:

But they brought back the Bells. They joined the Pacific International League at first. And then in 02/2005, when the West Coast League was founded, they joined the Bells or joined the West Coast League. And so so they’ve been, you know, in our in our current form, we have been around, you know, about fifteen years, and or no. Longer than that? Yeah. And, I’m trying to think. Yeah. You like to start thinking about Yeah.

Stephanie Morrell [00:33:01]:

Right. The the bells have been in the league for fifteen years. It’s been about, twenty that, the Bells have been around the community. So it’s been really very cool, to see, you know, just the community kind of embrace that. And then just as far as, you know, basically, the bells were around for a long time. And then in 02/2010, there was nothing bad about it. I just think that it had kinda lost its oomph a little bit. And so our our current or our past owner, Eddie Poplawski, actually, the the way he found the Bells is that his son was a baseball player at Georgetown and was playing in the West Coast League.

Stephanie Morrell [00:33:39]:

And he and his wife, Kim, came up to Bellingham to watch Danny play for the Walla Walla Sweets, and there was, like, a hundred and eight fans at this game. And he was just like, Bellingham is so cool. I love Bellingham. It seems like a place that really supports things. Like, what is happening here? And so then he just kinda got on a bender and decided to research it, and then he bought it. And so after he, bought the team, he just he’s the one who kinda set us on our current path. You know? He rebranded everything. Said, hey.

Stephanie Morrell [00:34:09]:

We gotta be community first. We gotta have local products, local vendors. We gotta make sure we develop the kids. We gotta have a mission. We gotta have a plan on where we go here. And, really, I mean, the seven years so Eddie bought the team. He owned it for about seven years, and the attendance tripled during that time. And we won a title during that time and everything else.

Stephanie Morrell [00:34:30]:

So and then just kinda set on this new trajectory of, you know, we’ve really had some nice fan support. So that’s that’s kinda what, you know, the evolution of baseball in Bellingham has looked like.

Scott Cowan [00:34:39]:

Okay. So now you said I hope that this isn’t right. But you said there was a hundred and eight people and he tripled the attendance. I hope it’s more than 325 people who went to

Stephanie Morrell [00:34:51]:

the No. I think, Eddie’s first year, he was really excited because he he got attendance to 500 fans a game. And, when he when he left, in 02/2017, I believe we had about 1,600 fans a game Okay. That year. So, you know, it it tripled. We’ve we’ve had a lot of good fan attendance success.

Scott Cowan [00:35:14]:

What approximately how many people does this the the ballpark hold?

Stephanie Morrell [00:35:19]:

We have seating for 1,600, and then we have a really large we have some group areas and a really large grassy berm. So we can have about 3,000 people at max.

Scott Cowan [00:35:28]:

Okay. Okay. That’s that’s still that’s that’s a lot of people to attend. That’s great. Well, let’s let’s talk Bellingham bells now. Walk me through I’m gonna miraculously appear at the stadium for a game in July. Okay? What am I gonna what’s my experience gonna be like? What what does Bellingham do? What’s what does your team do? Slightly different than everybody else? I mean, everyone’s got their own little flight you know, local flavor. So what’s the Bellingham Bell’s local flavor?

Stephanie Morrell [00:36:02]:

For sure. Well, one of the things I love is that everyone does things differently. And I travel all the time, and I just love seeing how everybody is just a little bit different. You know, I would say our ballpark is really unique. It’s very old, but it’s been updated. You know, it’s got we have all turf and, you know, video scoreboard and all that. So and, honestly, our ballpark is kind of like a little piece of Americana. It’s like free parking.

Stephanie Morrell [00:36:25]:

You kinda wander in, and, and it’s just this cute little stadium. Like, it’s very, it’s very Americana. So it’s different than some of the other stadiums that are a little newer and a little more commercialized.

Scott Cowan [00:36:38]:

One of

Stephanie Morrell [00:36:39]:

the things that we really do that Eddie was always big on is we really try to take care of our fans. And so, you know, Eddie always said, you don’t let somebody walk through the front door of your house without greeting them, and you don’t let them walk out of the front door of your house. So, like, you know, we stand at the gate every night, and we say goodnight to people. And that’s me and my staff every single night, like, unless something’s imploding. But for the most part, you know, we’re we’re there. We have people greeting fans at the beginning. We do, we do an all local menu pretty much. So we use Mhmm.

Stephanie Morrell [00:37:11]:

Hempler’s hot dogs and Rob’s pretzels and, you know, all those different local stuff, and that’s Right. You know, kind of our our own flavor. We have some, you know, different promotions that that we do and, you know, family fun day Sunday with the bounce house for the kids and, you know, some of these things. But our big thing, our owner now, Glenn Kirkpatrick I, like, our our big thing is just atmosphere. Like, we want I appreciate when people who are big baseball fans come to the game, and I know that they will come to the game, but there’s not enough big baseball fans to fill our stadium in Bellingham. Right. So, you know, those people are gonna come. They’re gonna listen on the radio.

Stephanie Morrell [00:37:49]:

They’re gonna keep. And I don’t want our atmosphere to be a hindrance to them, but I also wanna make sure that if you come to the game and you don’t care about baseball and you don’t know what a shortstop is, you could have a good time. And, and I think that’s what we’ve created. We’ve created an atmosphere that literally people ask me who won the game when they leave, and I’m totally fine with that because well, this is, you know, this is the community’s this is community’s team. It’s a community gathering place. It’s a place where you can come out and high five your neighbor and have fun. It’s affordable. So, so we wanna create an atmosphere that was fun, somewhere you’d wanna be.

Stephanie Morrell [00:38:25]:

And and I think we’ve done that, and I think that that’s, that’s kind of our big thing is atmosphere, and we continue to build on that and just, you know, find ways to make the atmosphere cooler and, really kind of, you know, try to feel like something’s going on, which is kind of our our big thing. So that’s what’s probably a little different. It’s just our we we kinda try to turn it into a party a little bit, but a baseball party. You know?

Scott Cowan [00:38:51]:

Baseball party. And who and who won the game? Yeah.

Stephanie Morrell [00:38:55]:

A lot of people know, but not everyone does.

Scott Cowan [00:38:57]:

I know. That that’s that’s funny. That was like, who? Sorry. I just won the game. This has nothing to it has something to do with baseball, but this is my memorable minor league baseball experience. Many years ago when my children were very young, I went to an Everett AquaSox game.

Stephanie Morrell [00:39:22]:

Mhmm. Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:39:24]:

I don’t remember how old my children were, but my I was carrying my daughter because so she was probably two, year and a half. Nah. Anyway, and I I wanna go to a ball game, so I took my kids to the AquaSox. And now I had a diaper bag on one shoulder, kid on the other arm, trying to keep my son from, you know, running into the street, and the I was greeted. It’s a funny thing you said, you know, you don’t let you greet people when they come to your house. So I was somebody said, oh, it’s you’re welcome. And you know what? And I must have looked like the typical single dad. And they ended up going, well, come with me.

Scott Cowan [00:40:03]:

And they I bought tickets, and they upgraded me to I was in the third row behind Home Plate.

Stephanie Morrell [00:40:09]:

Yeah. Cool. And

Scott Cowan [00:40:10]:

I had bought general admission tickets, right? And they they took me to my seat, they helped me with my kids, and we lasted like two innings. But but I just, I remember the hospitality that that team exhibited.

Stephanie Morrell [00:40:26]:

Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:40:26]:

I also remember sitting there with guys with radar guns, you know, clocking pitches too. It was it was like there were scouts. I was sitting around the Scott, so they probably didn’t like the guy with the two little kids, interrupting their work. But I think but they made me I mean, I tell that story twenty plus years later. Like, I appreciate that. And so I think having a party at the stadium, if you will, and and and welcoming people to come in and experience it, that’s that’s awesome. That’s that that builds community.

Stephanie Morrell [00:40:56]:

Yeah. And I think, you know, across the league, one of the things that we all do that we can do because we’re small teams, because we’re not the Mariners, and the certainly have done the same thing is that, we can make, you know, these memorable moments for people and it doesn’t, you know and and sometimes I have to remind myself that I mean, I’ve been around the ballpark all the time for eight years, but if somebody, you know, comes to the game and you say, hey. Do you wanna come out and do you wanna, you know, walk up walk over to the mound or see the team or throw first pitch or, you know, if it’s maybe, you know, kids Bellingham kids and getting to be in the dugout with the team or there’s so many, you know, unique and memorable things that we’re able to offer people that aren’t really major things. Right? It’s just like, you know, hey. Do you wanna come out and watch batting practice? Or do you wanna do this? But people, especially little kids, one of the coolest things is in all of our stadiums, you know, our players my players sign every autograph every night. And, you know, there’s little kids out there, They don’t know who these kids are. They think they’re superstars, you know. And so it’s really it’s really cool.

Stephanie Morrell [00:41:57]:

That’s probably honestly, my I don’t know if you’re gonna ask this question or not, but I’ll just ask it for you. My favorite part of the job Okay. Is really that. It’s the community stuff and it’s the being able to interact and, you know, do these special things for people, for organizations, for people in the community. That’s that’s really one of my favorite parts.

Scott Cowan [00:42:16]:

So do do you have do the players sign on across every game?

Stephanie Morrell [00:42:20]:

Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:42:20]:

Are they available?

Stephanie Morrell [00:42:21]:

Yeah. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:42:21]:

They are. Yeah. I mean, that’s awesome because you just made some five year old’s day.

Stephanie Morrell [00:42:28]:

For sure.

Scott Cowan [00:42:28]:

You made some seven 10 year old day. You know? Yep. The you know? And that autograph piece of paper, card, ball, whatever bat, whatever they they signed, that kid’s probably gonna lose it as they grow up, but they’re gonna remember it. You know what I mean? It’s gonna be somewhere in the mess of the kid’s bedroom.

Stephanie Morrell [00:42:44]:

I I

Scott Cowan [00:42:44]:

can’t really find, but they’re gonna remember it. And that’s and that reflects positively on the Scott. It it reflects positively on the team. Mhmm. And that’s that’s amazing. Sports need rivalries. You mentioned before we went officially live or maybe it wasn’t live, but you mentioned you you’re a Husky football family. Right? So that also means you love the Washington State Cougars.

Stephanie Morrell [00:43:09]:

I love the baseball team.

Scott Cowan [00:43:11]:

No. See, no. You have to love Cougar football too. I I have Cougar I I have autographed cougar helmets over here, but I also have a autographed husky helmet there too.

Stephanie Morrell [00:43:19]:

Alright. Alright.

Scott Cowan [00:43:20]:

So but I went to central, so I can I can pick and choose? But you went to you went to western. You can pick and choose too. But Yep. You are a husky football fan. Mhmm. Which means the dreaded Cougars.

Stephanie Morrell [00:43:31]:

Correct. Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:43:32]:

Okay. Good natured rivalry. You might root for the Cougars against every other team but the Huskies. Yep. Who’s the Bellingham Bells rival?

Stephanie Morrell [00:43:43]:

Yeah. Well, rivals are always a funny thing in the West Coast League because, you know, we turn over our players every year. So those rivalries don’t really, like, last with the players because it’s new every year. I would say geographic, you know, a lot of the a lot of the rivalries just come from from geography and history, I guess. Those are the two things. So, the Corvallis Knights are five time champions. They’re, you know, they’re incredible organization. Dan and Brie do and Brooke, who’s their head coach, amazing job.

Stephanie Morrell [00:44:10]:

Amazing people. They’ve earned every you know, people talk about how they’re the overlords and, you know, whatever. Like, no. They do a great job, and they’ve earned every single trophy, and every athlete they’ve gotten, they’ve earned. We have, you know, always battled with them. We’ve had two championship series with them in ’14 and ’16. In ’14, we’re fortunate enough to win the title in three games. And in 02/2016, ‘1 of the best baseball games I’ve ever seen, we dropped game three to them down in Goss Stadium, and bled most of the game, and they end up kinda unraveled, you know, in the sixth or seventh inning.

Stephanie Morrell [00:44:43]:

And, so there’s some rivalry there. We we love to play those guys. We get up when we play those guys. They’re a great organization. We’ve always had really tight ball games with them, and there’s a ton of respect for them. So, that’s a rivalry for sure, a very friendly, good natured one, but, definitely a rivalry. And then just geographically, the Harbour Scott are one probably our closest, because you can, you know, drive across the border and hop on a ferry and be in Victoria in maybe three hours. And so Right.

Stephanie Morrell [00:45:13]:

We tend to, you know, travel some fans when we go up there. They travel some fans when they come down here. And, we generally before this year, we’ve played them home and away pretty much every year, so you see them a lot. And they’ve been really good. They’re they’re another organization that’s well coached, and they’re one that we always find ourselves mixing up in, whether it’s a playoff or a couple years ago, it came down to us or them for a first half playoff. It came down to, you know, a head for head, you know, one game type thing. And so we’ve you know, it’s somebody that, we find ourselves in close matchups with again and someone we respect a whole heck of a lot. So those those two teams probably, but, everybody in the West Coast League is competitive and, you know, we love playing all those guys.

Stephanie Morrell [00:45:57]:

So it’s it’s kind of a a rivalry with all the different teams. You know? Everybody wants to beat everybody.

Scott Cowan [00:46:03]:

Well, every yeah. You it’s you’re extremely competitive when you’re when you’re playing the games. It’s just, you know, you’re you’re not the first GM to mention Corvallis. I’ll just I’ll just I I know that may be a shock season. You’re not the first yeah. You’re you’re not the first GM to mention them and, you know, and that’s, but I think that’s, I think having a team in any sport that’s the dreaded Yankees, let’s say. You know, love them or hate them, they’re good for the sport. The Dallas Cowboys, love them or hate them, they’re good for the sport.

Scott Cowan [00:46:32]:

They raise the bar for everybody.

Stephanie Morrell [00:46:34]:

Yes. Correct. Yeah.

Scott Cowan [00:46:35]:

And, famous Bellingham Bells, guys that made it to the show. Any names?

Stephanie Morrell [00:46:41]:

Yeah. So definitely have so, Marc Rzepczynski who has kinda kicked around the league. Yeah. And he was a he was a Mariner for a short time. He he played in the for the Bells. Adrian Sampson is, I believe, back in the league. He’s played over in Korea, also been a Mariner and a Ranger. And so, from my era, we have Spencer Howard who was a bow in 02/2015, ‘2 thousand ’16.

Stephanie Morrell [00:47:09]:

He was a pick from the Phillies and then, pitched with the Phillies for a few years, and then now he’s with the Rangers. And, so Spencer, was part of the Rangers rotation last year and I think will continue to be this year. And then Michael Rucker, who was a Bell in 2013 and ’14, was called up to the Cubs last year and, earned a spot with them. So he’ll continue to pitch, with them. But we’ve got, you know, just a really, a long list of guys who are getting ready to crack, Major League Baseball. So Austin Shenton is a former Bell. He is, he was drafted by the Mariners. He’s part of the Rays now, but he’s in double a with them.

Stephanie Morrell [00:47:51]:

He’s from Bellingham. So he’s kind of our, pride and joy here at Bellingham. And I think Austin’s got a

Stephanie Morrell [00:47:57]:

Yeah. I think Austin’s got a real shot. Matt McClain was a Bellingham, 2018. He actually turned down about two and a half million dollars to go to UCLA, and, so we got him that year after he turned down the draft money, played at UCLA, got drafted again, got, more money, I think, the second time. So it worked out okay for him. Matt’s no doubt gonna wear a Major League uniform. There’s just no question in that. And, and and a number of other guys too that are are close, and I think gonna Okay.

Stephanie Morrell [00:48:27]:

You know, crack crack those rosters. So that’s really fun. That’s, you know the league, I think, in general, has had there’s a list that the league has of all of the different of the affiliated, but also just MLB players who played on West Coast League teams, and it’s long. And it’s

Scott Cowan [00:48:46]:

It’s pretty substantial.

Stephanie Morrell [00:48:47]:

Yeah. It’s substantial. And it’s the baseball’s gotten so much better in this league just in the last five years though that I think you’re just gonna see that that list just grow and grow and grow, which is really cool.

Scott Cowan [00:48:59]:

Let’s, let’s let’s let’s talk about this year’s team for a second. Mhmm. Coaches. Yep. What are the coaches for this year?

Stephanie Morrell [00:49:06]:

Yeah. So our head coach is Adam Geisland. He, we actually hired him in fall of nineteen, and 2020 was supposed to be his first year. And then, we canceled that season. So 2021 was his real first season, so last season. Adam did a great job. He’s a good fit for our, you know, development first type of, program. He’s does a great job with culture and with players.

Stephanie Morrell [00:49:32]:

And so, Adam will be, his second year as our manager, and then, Carlos Arroyo is gonna be our pitching coach. And we had just a phenomenal I mentioned to him earlier, Jim Clem was our pitching coach for over ten years. Local legend, phenomenal pitching coach, and just got to the point where he needed a year away. And, Glenn and I found ourselves thinking, okay, we can’t take a step back here. We’ve had a phenomenal pitching coach. These coaches have come to expect this kind of pitching. And we’ve had a guy who’s got not only baseball expertise, but just years and miles. Right? To just, you know, have seen things and have experience.

Stephanie Morrell [00:50:12]:

And so we just went out and started asking around and, we found Carlos who’s a, was a coach in the Phillies minor league system for about forty years. Carlos was a roving coach, a coach at almost every level, pitching coordinator for some time. And so we set up a call, with Carlos, and I just instantly knew, like, this is our guy. Because, a, I mean, the experience, you don’t hang out with one team for four years if you don’t know what you’re doing and if you don’t have the pitching knowledge. And he’s got the pitching knowledge. He’s a % Scott the pitching knowledge, but he’s just he’s a great man. He’s got, just a phenomenal outlook on pitching and just, you know, understands the new school of baseball, but also takes it old school, as well and has that approach. So really excited about Carlos.

Stephanie Morrell [00:50:58]:

And then, we’ve got three young assistants, two with us from last year. So Hayden Hastings, who’s our catching coach and, was a catcher at Tulane and is now on staff at Edmonds Community College. And, David Hu Hagera, who is from California, he’s a coach at Caltech. And then, our fifth coach is our assistant pitching coach who will work with Carlos. And his name is Cody Anderson, and he’s actually a former Bell and a former WSU Cougar. And Cody was a Bell in 2015, and we had the opportunity to bring him on as our assistant pitching coach. So really excited about that. So, yeah, great line of coaches.

Stephanie Morrell [00:51:34]:

You know, with the coaches, we really just we look for character. We can’t preach character in our clubhouse, so we don’t have coaches who are our characters. Right. So we start there. We have really high expectations of how these guys conduct their business, and how they act on the field, and how they act off the field. And it has to start with the coaching staff. And so, we feel really lucky to have the group that we have that’s really experienced and knowledgeable and also just really great guys.

Scott Cowan [00:51:58]:

Great. How about the roster this year? Do you have many returning players, or is this a a primarily first year player for you this year? Where are you at

Stephanie Morrell [00:52:07]:

with that? Every year, I feel like we try to hit that number of, like, five to 10 returners. This year, we have, I think, somewhere in that. We’ve got probably, you know, eight or so. And our team last year was just really they were incredible from the standpoint of buying into the culture, following the rules, you know, not causing trouble, and and they were talented players too. And so we’re excited to bring back some players from that roster. So we’ll have some returners, and then just a lot of new players. There’s always a lot of new players every year, and so we’ll have new players this year, you know, with some of the schools that we’re working with and and just some, you know, different players. But really excited about it.

Stephanie Morrell [00:52:47]:

Just, you know, a lot of lot of these guys, we track their stats in the spring, and they’re getting opportunities and they’re doing well. And, you know, we’re excited for them to be able to come to Bellingham and see what they can do.

Scott Cowan [00:52:59]:

Where’s the most interesting location you’ve gotten a player from? Like, it doesn’t for example, did it doesn’t mean that they didn’t say go to UCLA, but, you know, from around the globe, where has there been anybody from a place you went, I didn’t know they played baseball there?

Stephanie Morrell [00:53:20]:

Yeah. I mean, not necessarily. I mean, generally, when we end up with, like, international players, they are from places where baseball’s fairly prominent. But we did we had a pitcher several years ago who was from, Venezuela. And, and then last year, we had Hugo Hamakala who was from Japan. And, other than that, you know, you end up with guys from all over. You know, we’ve had players from from every state. I I think it’s not so much, like, where they’re from.

Stephanie Morrell [00:53:48]:

The always really interesting thing to me is the connections that people have to our area when they’re from, like, wherever Florida. Like, you know, we we have a player coming from Texas who requested a host family because he knew them because they were neighbors when they lived in Vegas, like, twenty years ago. And then they they moved to Texas, the family moved to Bellingham, Twenty Years goes by, and now he’s coming out and he’s gonna live with them because they’ve, like, stayed in touch. And so there’s, like, always those sort of things, like, there’s one of those every year that makes my head, like, okay. The world is pretty big, but it’s also very small.

Scott Cowan [00:54:26]:

So did these people know that they want they were to be a host family, or did he just spring it on them? Yeah.

Stephanie Morrell [00:54:31]:

No. They did. They volunteered. They were excited about it. But, you know, we had two kids on the team a few years ago whose dads were college roommates at a college in Boston. And I hadn’t seen they were like frat brothers, and they hadn’t seen each other in, like, fifteen years, and then their kids get placed on the same summer team. Like, it’s just stuff like that.

Scott Cowan [00:54:49]:

That’s yeah. It’s a small world. It’s just yeah. You can’t make those up. You couldn’t

Stephanie Morrell [00:54:53]:

Oh, exactly.

Scott Cowan [00:54:57]:

Last question about the team. So walk me through a typical day for a player.

Stephanie Morrell [00:55:03]:

Yep.

Scott Cowan [00:55:04]:

What what what’s expected of a player? And is the is their day much different on a game day or an off day?

Stephanie Morrell [00:55:11]:

Yeah. Well, so off days, you know, there’s only, like, eight or nine of them in the whole summer. So we play over 60 games in, like, sixty nine or seventy days. And so, there’s very few off days. So we try to those off days, it’s like, that’s your day. Do what you wanna do. You know, maybe they’ll go home if they’re close enough to go home, or maybe their host family would take them to a Mariners game or out on the boat or, you know, whatever. But those those are kind of those sacred days.

Stephanie Morrell [00:55:37]:

Those are Thursday their days. Maybe they’ll go throw. You know, it’s pretty common they’ll go throw. Maybe they’ll they’ll hit in the cages a little bit. Maybe they’ll go to the gym, but, you know, it’s gonna just be they can do what they want on a game day. So, you know, these guys are usually not early early risers. I don’t think we got a lot of early birds. And so, basically, we do a, a fitness, you know, a fitness hour or fitness window between ten and noon.

Stephanie Morrell [00:56:04]:

And so the expectation is between ten and noon, you go to the gym or you go to the we work with a recovery center called Prime Sports, which is unbelievable. They have compression therapy. They have hot and cold pass, infrared saunas. They work with high end athletes and, there’s former d one athletic trainers that work at that facility, sports chiropractic. It’s actually next level. It’s really crazy that we even have it here. And, we’ve had this awesome partnership with them. So it’s like you’re gonna go to the recovery center or you go to the gym.

Stephanie Morrell [00:56:36]:

And then, you know, wrap up by noon. Most of the time, guys have an hour or so. Grab some lunch, go home, get your stuff together. And then, by 02:00, your position players are gonna be rolling into the stadium. Some days most days, we offer early work. So between, like, 12:30 and 01:30, you guys just wanna get some reps out, just go on the field, and the coaches will be out there running some early work and doing some drills. And then, you know, 02:00 or so, we’re usually our position players are gonna be in the cages and getting some swings in that way. And then, about 03:00, usually back down in the clubhouse, guys, you know, getting food, getting ready for BP.

Stephanie Morrell [00:57:15]:

Generally, the coaches will address the team around three or 03:30, come up to the field, and then take batting practice, and the pitchers will be doing their thing. Some of them will be, you know, playing catch or shagging balls or, you know, doing different things, as well. And take batting practice till 04:30 or 04:45, and then head back down to, the clubhouse and, you know, get some nutrition, get some food. We’ve got snacks down there, for them and, you know, run and get smoothies. I think the smoothie place across the area or across the street is, like, sponsored by the Bells at this point. And, but then, by, by about we Scott at 06:35, our games do. So by about 06:00, we get all the guys back up in the dugout, in full uniform, and kind of out throwing, warming up. And, then the game starts.

Stephanie Morrell [00:58:07]:

And, you know, usually, the game wraps about 09:00. We do a postgame meal for them. So usually something catered, pasta, whatever. So they eat and then, usually, you know, they go out some some of them actually go out for second meals, more of them than I ever imagined. A lot of them end up eating a second meal. Go out for dinner with, you know, their teammates or whatever, and then, you know, go home and start the whole thing over the next day. So it’s kinda what the what it looks like.

Scott Cowan [00:58:38]:

Well, one of the things that I’ve taken away from one of the benefits I think of the league is that this format exposes them to more what the the minors in in ultimately the major leagues gets them to. It’s it’s not a part time job. It’s a full time job and then some. Yes. So yeah. No. That’s awesome. Well, to wrap this up, this is me.

Scott Cowan [00:59:03]:

I say this every time. So what didn’t I ask you that I should have? This is how I could think, like, what did I not bring up? Because we could keep going, but like, what, what didn’t I bring up that I should have about about you or the Bellingham Bells or Bellingham,

Stephanie Morrell [00:59:19]:

gosh. I don’t know. I think you hit a lot of things. I’m trying to think.

Scott Cowan [00:59:25]:

Okay. Well, what do you do? What do you like to do for fun and entertainment when you’re not being the GM? I mean, during the baseball season, we know it’s all baseball all the time. But when it’s the off season, besides husky football, what do you like to do?

Stephanie Morrell [00:59:38]:

Yeah. Well, husky football, first and foremost, that’s, like, takes my whole fall. I am, lately, I’m really into group exercise. I don’t know why, but, I’ve gotten really into, taking barre classes. There’s a barre three studio here in Bellingham. Got really obsessed with that. So, I take a lot of group classes.

Scott Cowan [01:00:00]:

What’s that?

Stephanie Morrell [01:00:01]:

It’s like a core cardio blend sort of thing. Yeah. exactly sure how you describe it, but it’s hard and it’s good. And, it’s across the street from our office. So I’ve been doing a lot of that. I like to read. I have a four year old daughter, so I chase her around. And, you know, we like to vacation.

Stephanie Morrell [01:00:22]:

I like to cook. So I like to think I’m fairly well rounded. You know, and I just sports all the time. But, but, yeah, my my husband and I like to, just active, you know, run and mountain bike. And Bellingham is I mean, Bellingham is amazing. Like, that’s one of the reasons why we still live here is you, we can walk out the front door of our house and be in a trail system in, you know, a minute. And, and it’s just and we actually live at the base of Galbraith Mountain for for mountain biking, which is, like, just trails, all these grim trails, and it’s just amazing just what we have at our fingertips here in Bellingham. So, definitely like to be active and get outside and then do all the stuff that my four year old is into, like parks and children’s museums and all that kind of stuff.

Stephanie Morrell [01:01:08]:

So yeah.

Scott Cowan [01:01:10]:

Does your does your daughter go to the games? Does she like going to the ballpark?

Stephanie Morrell [01:01:15]:

Yeah. Well She’s

Scott Cowan [01:01:16]:

a little young yet, but I mean, does she I

Stephanie Morrell [01:01:17]:

don’t know if this, story is fit for the podcast or not, but I’ll tell it to you and then you can decide. Sure.

Scott Cowan [01:01:23]:

So I’ll leave it in.

Stephanie Morrell [01:01:24]:

My daughter is Belle’s baby through and through because, I had her two days before opening day in 2018. I was pregnant that year. I was due at the June, and I had a very, you know, in my head plan of how it was all gonna go. And my due date was June 30, and my owner kept saying, like, when is like, when are you due? And I’m like, June 30. Don’t worry. It’s June 30. And then, of course, two days before opening day, the team is on the road, and I have to call Glenn and be like, yeah. So we think I’m gonna have a baby today.

Stephanie Morrell [01:01:56]:

So you’re gonna have and it was his first it was his first year as the owner. And I’m like, you’re gonna have to figure this out. And, and, anyway, so I was back to work I mean, I didn’t go back full time, but I was back at the ballpark with my baby and a carrier in about two weeks. And, I did what I , and, our staff really stepped up, Flynn stepped up, and we just we just made it work. But everybody knows my daughter because she was kind of the little one that derailed opening day. And that whole summer, I had her in a front row. And and so people will ask me, how old is Sydney now? And and I’ll tell them, and they’re like, oh, we remember the eerie hot or, you know. And so she definitely is she’s our through and through bells baby.

Stephanie Morrell [01:02:39]:

She caused a little bit of chaos, and, and she loves I mean, I don’t think there’s any other choice, but she loves going to the games. And, my husband will take her, and she, you know, runs around. And she doesn’t really like the mascot, so she’s in that phase where she kinda could take or leave the Scott. But she really likes, you know, she and she gets to do all the cool things, like run around the field after the games and, you know, go out and whatever. So she, yeah, it’ll be really fun to to race her at the ballpark.

Scott Cowan [01:03:06]:

Right. She’s a

Stephanie Morrell [01:03:06]:

pretty we’re having her fourth birthday at the ballpark this year because it coincides with with opening day. So yeah. No. It’s she really likes it. Yeah. It’s good.

Scott Cowan [01:03:16]:

That’s okay. So that’s a great story to tell. See, that’s that’s a great story. Well, thank you for taking the time to, make this happen. I appreciate all your help that you’ve been outside of the episode, if you will. And I’m looking forward to my small part in the league this year and watching a lot of baseball. I’ll get to watch a lot more baseball this year than I have in ever in the past, so that’ll be fun. And I’m I’m hopeful that, that I’m gonna get to see some of the other ballparks this year, that I’m gonna be able to travel and go and check out, some of the other stadiums.

Scott Cowan [01:03:51]:

We’re, you know, here’s my baby story, if you will. We’re getting a puppy in a few days and I’ll have a, you know, a very young puppy during the season. So, you know, I’m sure nothing can go chaotic there. But anyway, no, I’m hopeful that I’m gonna get to, some of the other ballparks, this year. Let me ask you. I I’m I pause. I I’m gonna ask you one last question.

Stephanie Morrell [01:04:18]:

Sure.

Scott Cowan [01:04:21]:

This is your opinion. Sure. Okay. I’m asking your opinion. What do you think the league’s gonna look like competitive wise and and just in general over the next couple of years? What do you think because you you mentioned during the episode that in the last five years Yeah. Competition’s improved. Yep.

Scott Cowan [01:04:37]:

What do you think’s on the horizon? I mean, are we gonna yeah. What’s the league gonna look like in a couple more years, do you think?

Stephanie Morrell [01:04:46]:

Yeah. Well, I don’t think that the league is going anywhere but up, in every way. In competition, you know, we’ve really improved that over the last five years. We’ve also added teams. I think we’ve added, you know, teams have upped their operations. I think they’re all connected. And I think where it starts is that we have a group. So we have 16 teams, and we have a group of really excellent, smart, successful owners, who are doing this for the right reasons, who understand business, who understand marketing, who understand, you know, positioning a team in the community and what that has to look like.

Stephanie Morrell [01:05:22]:

And Mhmm. Really not that it, you know, hasn’t we’ve always had great teams in the league, but sometimes people start the teams, and they don’t necessarily have the resources to put behind them and, you know, to do certain things certain ways. And now we’ve got across the league. We’ve got teams being run very professionally. And what that lends to is more fans, more programs being willing to work with you, more validity, you know, and and everyone kinda starting to see the West Coast League as, wow, this is really the best summer collegiate baseball on the West Coast, and this rivals some of the East Coast leagues. And so we’re seeing that more and more, I think. And we’ve added five markets. We’ve added Edmonton, which is a huge market, 9,000 seat stadium That’s gonna be huge for the league.

Stephanie Morrell [01:06:04]:

And, Nanaimo is a great market. Springfield is a great market. So we’ve got great markets. We’ve got great operators. You know, if you were to look at, like, the board of directors and some of what some of these guys do in their business lives, they were very successful. Like, and and they know what they’re doing and and they’ve hired good staffs and had good brands. So I don’t see the league, you know, I think the league’s probably gonna add I mean, this is my own opinion, but I’d imagine Right. There’s just there’s gonna be more teams, you know, in the future.

Stephanie Morrell [01:06:32]:

And there’s going to be people are gonna wanna be a part of it, and they’re gonna keep bringing these people in who, wanna do it in a a certain way, and it’s just gonna be really, really good, I think, for across the board. And so all of that translates more teams, good owners, all of that. It just all translates into better baseball because it all trickles down to having something that high end programs wanna be a part of, that they can trust, that they wanna send players to. And when that happens, you know, I mentioned Matt McClain. This year, we have JR Ritchie who is said to be a first round, draft prospect. We’ve had other guys who have played in the league from other teams. They’re you know, Corvallis has had many. When you have those sort of players being trusted in the West Coast League, the baseball just gets better, you know, and and Oh, that’s so exciting.

Stephanie Morrell [01:07:24]:

Everything else. So, yeah, it’s very cool, and I think it’s, you know, headed nowhere but up.

Scott Cowan [01:07:29]:

That’s that’s exciting. I mean, in in this region has such a long storied baseball history. Yep. For sure. It’s amazing. So, well, I thank you for your time. I appreciate you doing this. I look forward to our paths crossing in person one day this summer because I’m sure they will.

Stephanie Morrell [01:07:43]:

Yes.

Scott Cowan [01:07:44]:

And, you can have the last word.

Stephanie Morrell [01:07:47]:

Well, I don’t know that I have one, but I just wanna, yeah, say thank you to you for working with all of us and, for your time. And, yeah, I really appreciate it.